The Scientific Principles Behind Tarot Reading

In psychology, Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) built on Freud’s theory of the unconscious by distinguishing between the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. Jung’s idea of the collective unconscious proposes that humans share inherited psychological patterns rooted in a primordial stratum of the psyche. He called this shared layer the "collective unconscious," and the recurring patterns it contains are "archetypes." An archetype is a fundamental pattern of understanding—a universal, collective, and archaic mode of thought common to all people.

From a Jungian perspective, tarot cards can be seen as a medium that taps into the collective unconscious and gives form to archetypes. They portray life’s cycles and the range of emotions encountered along the way, helping people visualize images and insights that arise from the unconscious.

Jung also developed the concept of "synchronicity," drawing on the I Ching. He described it as the simultaneous occurrence of two or more events connected by meaning or shared imagery rather than by cause and effect—what he called a "meaningful coincidence." Synchronicity illustrates the relationship between mind and matter and suggests a common thread running through existence, a pattern that transcends time and space and links consciousness.

By this principle, the cards drawn are understood to relate meaningfully to the question asked. During a tarot reading, the spread should be interpreted faithfully, with the guidance of intuition.

However, although each person’s personal unconscious is connected to the collective unconscious, most people cannot freely draw information from that shared layer. This creates limits of "relevance" in divination. Therefore, tarot readings should focus on matters that are personally meaningful, and one should avoid reading for someone they do not know well.
In essence, the principle of tarot divination is simple: through the symbols and patterns on the cards, it stimulates and guides the subconscious, memory, associative thinking, intuition, and sixth sense. This process helps estimate possibilities, trace how events may unfold, and infer the present state. More than a tool for divination, it serves as a mirror reflecting one’s inner truth.